So. Yesterday I had to do some hideous Physics practical about capacitors, for which I got 21/28 despite it taking me only a third of the time that it should have done.
So, yay. Anyway, I must go and make revision notes for Physics, yes.
-- scrawled by Katy on Wednesday, April 2, 2003, 03:44 p.m.

Argh. The Essex libraries website won't renew my library books for me, because it's sulking. Grr.
In other news, it's the weekend! w00t!
-- scrawled by Katy on Friday, March 28, 2003, 07:23 p.m.

Well, I'm back. Did you miss me? ^_^ Anything particularly interesting/important happened since Sunday morning, anyone?
Durham was pretty, but I still prefer Bristol. You know, every university open day I've been on I've been ill, except for Bristol. Ah, it must be fate... or something. :sneeze, cough, etc.:
I wish it was the weekend - I need many hours of sleep.
Kathryn and Emily made me get a taxi. In London. I've never been more traumatised... why couldn't we get the tube? :cries: I love the tube.
Still, never mind.
Plus, Ant and Dec are not on tv again until like next spring, or something. Bleh. I love them so. But, y'know, don't tell anyone that, cause it's kind of sad.
It's probably a sign that I watch too much tv that when they read my name over the speakers on the train yesterday* my first thought was 'this had better not be some stupid secret camera show'.
*My railcard had mysteriously transported itself into a carriage that I hadn't been in - a particularly stupid pickpocket, maybe?
-- scrawled by Katy on Wednesday, March 26, 2003, 07:00 p.m.

I'm going to Kathryn's this evening, and tomorrow I'm going to Durham with her and Emily. I won't be back until sometime Tuesday evening. So, ok.
-- scrawled by Katy on Sunday, March 23, 2003, 09:23 a.m.

I'm too lazy to keep typing out what happened at the protest, so I'll just copy/past my conversation with Rhi:

Katy: a policeman shouted at me
Rhi: LFMAO
Rhi: what'd he say?
Katy: "get up!"
Rhi: LFNFGFGOIGjgkjdg.f..lmfao
Katy: everyone sat down in the middle of the high street so no traffic could get past
Rhi: ahahha
Rhi: I love it
Katy: and they were like 'you promised to protest outside the war memorial! move!' so eventually we did
Rhi: lmao
Katy: and then we got bored and tried to get to the town hall
Rhi: "You pwomised!"
Katy: but the police stopped us
Rhi: lol
Katy: so we went a long complicated route through back streets and the policemen got lost and we ran like the wind to the town hall!
Katy: and they surrounded us and threatened to arrest us all.
Rhi: LMFAO
Rhi: suuure
Katy: 22 policemen v. 500ish protesters
Rhi: bwahaha did you take them out?
Katy: so we sat there and chanted
Katy: and a reporter took a photo of me and my sister!
Katy: and some old woman came and yelled at us
Rhi: lmao
Katy: "i paid taxes for these paving stones and now you're all just SITTING on them! my husband fought in the war you know!'
Katy: so the people from the uni chanted 'bongs not bombs' at her and she ran away
Rhi: lmao
Rhi: It sounds like a movie made by people on acid
[snip]
Katy: then we were still there and they said 'if you don't leave by 3:15 we'll start arresting you!
Katy: so we stayed until 3:15.999999 and then ran away
Rhi: lmfao
Katy: (I mean, 3:14.99999
Rhi: okay lol
Katy: I had a free lesson so the school couldn't stop me going but they locked the gates to try to stop people leaving
Rhi: fascist pigs
[snip]
Katy: "we all live in a fascist regime" TTTO "yellow submarine"
Katy: it's like living in The Young Ones

-- scrawled by Katy on Thursday, March 20, 2003, 04:36 p.m.

So we're at war, it seems. Joy.
It's weird to see the different opinions people have about it. There are definitely exceptions, but on the whole out of people I know, the Americans are like 'aaargh! a war!' and incredibly freaked about it (which is fair enough) and the Brits are more like 'ho hum. another war. let's go and practice queuing.' Also, like all the Brits I know think (or at least, have said in a joking manner) we're more likely to get bombed by George Bush pressing the wrong button than by the Iraqis.
Although I feel that is probably unlikely.
So this is what I think: War is the wrong thing to do no matter what the cause is. But since in this case it seems to be inevitable, I think I'm at least on the right side of things. However, Tony Blair seems to be acting more stupidly than usual.
It's all very confusing.

Anyway. Later I'm going to an anti-war protest. It's in the town center at 2pm, but I have a free then anyway. And so do the year 10s who are going (including my sister) - basically every year 10 who doesn't take Spanish has study leave this afternoon. But the thing is, a lot of year 9s and year 11s are also going, and that means they're walking out of lessons.
Which is fair enough - I mean, it's an important thing.The only problem is that if no other 6th formers turn up (although Sam said she'd come, and maybe with Dave) I'll be the oldest there, and maybe be held responsible for taking all the littles out of lessons?
Eh, I guess I'm just paranoid. They're old enough to make their own decisions, and I'm allowed to go.
Meh.

Also, have spent most of the day working on my yearbook page with Lauren. It has many niggles!
-- scrawled by Katy on Thursday, March 20, 2003, 11:48 a.m.

Ow I feel ill. Ick.
Although, my maths coursework is now 3947 words long. Woo!
-- scrawled by Katy on Tuesday, March 18, 2003, 08:46 p.m.

Looks like war is imminent, then. Blech. It's all going horribly wrong, isn't it?
School was not hugely thrilling - although it was the first day we could sit outside without freezing to death, so that's good. I remembered my resit form which is good seeing as they're in tomorrow - I'm resitting P2 and Electrons & Photons. So, yeah.
Ow. Nail death.
-- scrawled by Katy on Monday, March 17, 2003, 06:53 p.m.

Red Nose Day was fabulous. And plus, Adam and Joe were on it. Bliss.
-- scrawled by Katy on Saturday, March 15, 2003, 04:05 p.m.

As I suspect I may already have mentioned, today was results day for the January lot of exams. And here... as you are all no doubt anxious to know them... are said results:
General Studies
Culture, Morality, Arts & Humanities (French): 75/90 (an A, might I add...)
Society, Politics & the Economy (Case Study): 52/120 (an E! Masterful! But then, we all knew I was going to suck at that one, and at least I passed the thing.)
Science, Maths & Technology: 54/90 (a C. Oops. How on Earth did I get a higher mark for arts than for sciences? Still, General Studies is a B over all and that's good enough for me... I'd need 54 marks or thereabouts to go up to an A so I really cannot be bothered to resit.)
Physics
Forces, Fields & Energy: 71/90 (a B, but only one mark off an A. Grr. This means I have 80.7% for Physics, and I'm so not going to be able to keep my average above 80% for the A with Unifying Concepts and Health Physics in the summer. Electrons and Photons resit, do you think? Hm.)
Maths
Probability & Statistics 2: 98/100 (an A, shock shock. w00t! This brings my maths average to 93%-ish, so I only need a 67% average on the five summer exams and the coursework to get two As over all. So, y'know, woo. At times like this I feel I am doing the right subject.)
All in all not too bad, huh?
Also, loving the spangly new phone. It plays Tetris!
-- scrawled by Katy on Thursday, March 13, 2003, 07:19 p.m.

Firstly, renaming French fries? Ahahaha! Could they be more childish?
Today was all fun, for no apparent reason, but hey. All good. A free in which I sat around and read Anya Seton's Katherine and talked to Emily and Katherine, and then physics. We have now finished learning about the ear. Woo! Because, learning about ears makes my ears hurt. Learning body mechanics makes my back hurt, and so on. You'll be able to tell the exact questions on the health physics paper just from watching me twitch.
Lauren and me are going to do a yearbook page together, because Kathryn and Emily did one so it seems pairs are the way we're going... so we can have a page of niggles :) and maybe we should get Mr Bowles to sign it! Heh.
Then the joy of maths, and doing fabulous partial fractions and differentiating products. Bleh.
Anyway. Then I went into town, to get the money for Zara and buy Red Noses for people at school, and I met Dad in Culver Square.
And, for my birthday (just over a month away) he bought me a new phone! Oh how I love it. It's little and silver and has blue lights, and Tetris and everything. Joy ^_^
And then I bought extra red noses for people who do not have them, and also went to the library.
The Bible Code (Michael Drosnin) - Sam was reading this in Physics the other day, I like it up until the whole 'God is aliens!' thing.
A History of God (Karen Armstrong)
We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (Philip K. Dick)
Year Of The Griffin (Diana Wynne Jones)
Falling Sideways (Tom Holt) - as recommended by Gemma
The Game-Players of Titan (Philip K. Dick)
Heavy Weather (P. G. Wodehouse)

-- scrawled by Katy on Wednesday, March 12, 2003, 04:05 p.m.

epic

According to Kathryn and Emily (who take Classics and so should know these things), an epic poem must:
‡Start in the middle
‡Contain a flashback
‡Contain a description of the hero's armour, and
‡Use similes.
There are also rules about word position and vowel length, etc., but since we weren't writing them in Ancient Greek or Latin we decided they didn't count. And so, what with Physics being so boring, me and Lauren wrote some short epic poems (ha, oxymoron) on the theme of 'niggles' (small blob-like creatures which we draw and use in hangman because they're cuter than stickmen so there's more incentive to save them).
So, here you go:

Lauren's first epic

The niggle looked at the clock. Only 5 minutes to go until the end of physics. Not even the lead armour could keep out the boredom. A physics lesson is like watching paint dry. The niggle thought back to yesterday's lesson, and remembered the feeling of happiness when the lesson was over.
All of a sudden the bell went, indicating that Norace the niggle could now escape his daily hour of boredom. Norace skipped out the door feeling as free as a niggle bird or a niggle bee.

Lauren's second epic

There was a niggle called Dave
Who didn't know how to behave
In physics he wore his armour
And discovered the constant called Larmour
And his glasses they were concave.

On the day that Dave was born
There was an early dawn
Dave popped right out
Like a cork out of a spout
And in battle his enemies did mourn.

Katy's epic

Jeff the Niggle climbed the ladder
In a manner like a bee
As he pondered all the grammar
Of that previous simile.
For he was a mighty hero
Dressed in armour green and red
Who chose these colours is not clear, though
Their fashion sense is like a shed's.
Many hours back he'd been waiting
Sitting down and drinking tea
When his phone had started ringing
So he'd answered it with glee.
The Niggle Liberation Front
An organisation run by Jeff
Were needed to rescue a friend from Hunt-
Ingdon who'd been condemned to death.
An evil King whose name was Fang
Whose punishments were most absurd
Insisted that this chap must hang
Unless Jeff managed to guess the word.
But poor Jeff lacked linguistic skill
In that he was quite like a horse
So he smote the King with his blade of steel
And strove to save his friend by force.
His friend Jemima was most glad
As he cut her down from the rafter
They soon got married with haste quite mad
And they all lived happily ever after.


-- scrawled by Katy on Tuesday, March 11, 2003, 01:56 p.m.